Razzaque says Social Toaster replaces
the cost-per-click model by allowing
sports teams to control their messaging
and how often content is pushed to fans.

“We push messages across multiple
platforms, including LinkedIn, Facebook
and Twitter, but traditional online ad buys
are relegated to an individual channel or
search engine,” he says. “That means we
provide the viral lift at a fraction of the
cost.”

Social Toaster counts the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens and Indianapolis Colts,
the NBA’s Detroit Pistons and the NHL’s
Chicago Blackhawks and Buffalo Sabres
among its clients.

viral lift (the ratio of number of visits
generated to the links shared) can be as
high as 245 percent. Social Toaster charges clients a monthly fee that starts at $379
a month and rises based on the number
of active super fans who are helping share
content.

The company now has about 60 clients — many outside the sports realm,
some in consumer goods and retail, nonprofit, entertainment, education and even
some bloggers and politicians.

“We ask potential clients two questions: One, do they have an audience that
likes their brand enough that they could
produce someone (a super fan) who’d be
willing to share information about that

Mike Donnay, senior director of brand
networks at Palace Sports & Entertainment and the Detroit Pistons, says for the
team, social media success isn’t only about
sustaining growth, but also growing fan
engagement. “Super fans are becoming
the go-to person for our brand, and we
make it possible for them to have exclusive content before anyone else,” he adds.

Last season, the Pistons had 40,000
followers on Twitter. By late November
2012, the team had nearly 100,000 followers. Donnay adds that ticket sales
have increased, too.

Razzaque says in some instances, thebrand? And two, are they publishingcontent that’s interesting enough that thesuper fan would like to share it and thattheir audience would actually read it?”With sports teams, a super fan mighttweet about players and team news about85 to 90 percent of the time, but use therest of the time to announce a few seatsleft for the big game or that a jersey isgoing on sale.

Nielsen operates as an information and measurement
company worldwide. It offers critical media and
marketing information, analytics and industry expertise
about what consumers buy and what consumers watch
on a global and local basis. TV audience data above is
from Nielsen NPM Sample and is based on live+same
day viewing during the time period October 29 through
November 25, 2012. Ranking is based on the projected
audience in 000s and the reportable day interval for each
cable network. For inquiries on the above, please E-mail:
sigma@nielsen.com.